Town, village work to regulate short-term rentals

Town and village leaders are working to create regulations for short-term rental lodging.

The communities’ Intermunicipal Task Force reviewed the matter at Monday’s meeting of the Village Board.

“The Northern Dutchess Alliance indicated there that the county tourism volume was $642 million a year, and we know here, with Bard [College] and Omega [Institute], we get a fair amount of that,” said village Mayor Ed Blundell.

Information from Dutchess County states there are online listings for six short-term rental properties in the village of Red Hook and 79 in the surrounding town.

Blundell said it appears regulations in the town would include prohibiting short-term rental lodging where the principal occupant is not present, except in the agricultural and business districts.

Officials noted, though, that town and village are likely to differ.

“We have no hotels here,” Blundell said. “So we want to monitor to make sure the town doesn’t strangle us in an overly strict ordinance.”

During a Town Board meeting two weeks ago, members said they were drafting language based on comments made at several recent public sessions and expected to have a proposal in the near future.

Town Supervisor Robert McKeon said the short-term rental industry is growing and that Red Hook’s regulations are being drafted in an effort to deal with some of the known problems in other communities, such as noise.

“Part of the assessment is not only what are the potential impacts, but are we already experiencing any impacts,” McKeon said. “To my knowledge, we’ve had very few complaints.”